Knitted garment and method

ABSTRACT

A NOVEL GARMENT IS PRODUCED BY KNITTING A BODY ENCIRCLING TUBULAR MEMBER HAVING SELECTED ENLARGED AREAS, SLITTING THE TUBULAR MEMBER FROM ONE END TO A POINT PROXIMATE THE ENLARGED AREAS TO DEFINE HALF-COURSES IN THE SEC-   TIONS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE SLIT AND THEN SEAMING THE TWO SECTIONS ALONG THE SLIT LINE TO DEFINE LIMB ENCIRCULING PORTIONS.

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KNITTED GARMENT'AND METHOD Original Filed Feb. 17, 1965 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 INVENT'OR:

HARRY wmuALL I 9 mm ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,561,000 KNITTED GARMENT AND METHOD Harry Wignall, Leicester, England, assignor to The Bentley Engineering Company Limited Continuation of application Ser. No. 433,334, Feb. 17, 1965. This application July 22, 1968, Ser. No. 752,116 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Feb. 28, 1964, 8,362/ 64 Int. Cl. D04b 9/20 US. Cl. 66-51 17 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A novel garment is produced by knitting a body encircling tubular member having selected enlarged areas, slitting the tubular member from one end to a point proximate the enlarged areas to define half-courses in the sections on both sides of the slit and then seaming the two sections along the silt line to define limb encircling portions.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS British No. 8,362/64 of Feb. 28, 1964, H. Wignall et al., from which priority is claimed.

U.S. Ser. No. 433,334, H. Wignall, filed Feb. 17, 1965, now abandoned of which the present application is a continuation.

The present invention is primarily concerned with knitted body garments (such for example as sweaters, jumpers, pullovers and the like) provided with sleeves, and hereinafter referred to as garments of the type specified. It will be understood that these sleeves may be of any desired length. However, the invention is also applicable to lower body garments having a trunk-encircling portion and limb-encircling portions or legs, such for example as tights, leotards, and panti-hose.

Garments of this type have commonly been made by cutting shaped portions of the garment from knitted fabric in the piece and seaming these portions together. The present invention provides a garment of the type specified, or a blank therefor, having integral sleeves united to the fabric of the body of the garment by arm-pit fashioning sutures. The expression suture is used herein in the sense 4 in which it is commonly used in relation to heel and toe pouches 0f stockings and the like to mean a knitted joint between two integrally-knit areas of fabric which joint extends diagonally of the courses and wales of at least one of the areas and is produced by a temporary cessation of knitting in consecutive wales and its subsequent resumption which cessation or resumption or each of them is effected progressively from wale to wale. It is a physical characteristic of a fashioning suture that it consists of loops of successive wales and courses of the knitted fabric at one side of it, meshed with the loops of successive wales or of successive wales and courses, of the knitted fabric at the other side of it and that it extends diagonally of the wales and courses of at least the fabric at said side of it.

It will be appreciated that since integral sleeves are thus produced the present invention not only reduces the cutting of fabric to a minimum but also largely eliminates cutting waste.

Any form of fashioning sutures known for pouch formation may be employed. Preferably the sutures extend diagonally of the wales and courses of both the sleeve fabric and the body fabric. Alternatively the sutures extend coursewise of the fabric on one side thereof and diagonally of the wales and courses of the fabric at the other side thereof. Thus the sutures may either extend course- Patented Feb. 2, 1971 ice wise of the body fabric and diagonally of the wales and the courses of the sleeve fabric, or coursewise of the sleeve fabric and diagonally of the wales and courses of the body fabric.

It is preferred that the body fabric shall be knitted as a seamless tube. In a garment of this form it is preferred that each sleeve shall be seamed along the top. The sleeve seams may join cut edges of the sleeve fabric or may join selvedge edges of the sleeve fabric.

The blank for a garment having the body fabric knitted as a seamless tube may also have sleeve fabric knitted as a seamless tube. This sleeve fabric requires subequently to be cut walewise along a medial line to divide it into two sleeve parts, the cut edges of which are eventually seamed along the tops of the sleeves.

If the body fabric is made as a seamless tube it is most conveniently knitted on a circular knitting machine, but it may be knitted on a fiat knitting machine having two needle beds. However if either of these types of knitting machine is employed, then instead of knitting the sleeve fabric as a seamless tube it may be knitted as two selvedged parts by reciprocatory or to-and-fro knitting. These sleeve parts may be suitably shaped by fashioning.

In an alternative construction according to this invention, the garment may consist of front and rear blanks each having arm-pit sutures, the two blanks being seamed together up the sides and along the top and bottom of the arms. Such blanks may be knitted on any machine adapted to knit selvedged fabric and having the necessary facilities for producing the sutures: primarily a knitting machine having a straight row of needles, such for example as a flat machine or a Cottons patent or other straight bar machine. A blank for a garment having the features just set out may have a selvedged body part and two selvedged sleeve parts each united to the body part by an arm-pit suture. Each sleeve part may be selvedged at its lower edge only, or may have both edges selvedged.

It will be understood that the production of a knitted blank according to the present invention may be carried out on any knitting machine capable of making fashioned sutures, and specifically a knitted pouch, by the exchange of needles between knitting activity and loop-holding inactivity. Thus, a circular, or a straight-bar, or a flat machine may be employed, bearing in mind that a straight bar knitting machine will only knit fiat fabric.

Circular knitting machines are commonly equipped with needle-selecting mechanisms of wide scope, but pickers are commonly employed for making pouches with fashioning sutures, seamless hose and half hose machines. It is also well known to knit two pouches on two opposed groups of needles, by shogging the needle cylinder. It is also quite possible to make the tubular blank on a Gris- Wold-type machine, the needles being selected by hand.

Straight bar machines are commonly equipped with devices which cause needles to hold their last knitted loops by preventing them from pressing and these could be moved progressively inwards from, and then progressively outwards towards, the ends of the needle bar.

Flat machines fall into two categories: those which have two opposed beds of needles and can knit either tubular fabric or two pieces of flat, selvedged fabric and those which have only a single bed and can therefore only knit flat, selvedged fabric. In flat machines it is well known to move needles progressively into, and then to restore them progressively from, loop-holding inactivity. See, for example, US. specification Nos. 1,767,480 and 1,781,933, Rolston. They cantherefore be employed to carry out the present invention. Alternatively, the needles can be selected by hand.

This invention also provides a method of making a knitted blank for a body garment of the type specified,

which comprises knitting sleeve-forming fabric and tubular body-forming fabric, the one in a direct continuation of and integral with the other, on a knitting machine (preferably a circular knitting machine) adapted to knit tubular fabric, and providing arm-pit fashioning sutures by the sequential steps of causing the needles at each of two spaced locations temporarily to cease knitting but to retain their last-knitted loops and of then restoring them to knitting activity, at least one, and preferably each, of which steps is effected progressively.

In order that the invention may be better understood reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a tubularly knitted blank according to this invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation, and FIG. 3 is a side elevation, of this blank;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the manufacture of the garment from this blank;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the needle lay-out of a circular knitting machine for producing this blank;

FIG. 6 illustrates a modified blank;

FIG. 7 is a front elevation, and FIG. 8 is a side elevation, of this blank; while,

FIG. 9 illustrates a garment produced therefrom;

FIG. 10 illustrates a further modified blank;

FIG. 11 is a front elevation, and FIG. 12 is a side elevation, of this blank, while,

FIG. 13 illustrates a garment produced therefrom;

FIGS. 14 and 15 illustrate the operation of a circular knitting machine, having independent needles, for producing a garment blank according to this invention.

The essentially tubular garment blank 10 illustrated in FIG. 1 is best produced on a circular knitting machine of the independent latch needle type having a circle of needles 11 as illustrated in FIG. 5 and two knitting and feeding positions 12a, 12b each equipped with cams for knitting both during rotation and during oscillation and with known means for progressively directing needles into loop-holdng inactivity and for progressively directing them therefrom into knitting activity. The needles are subdivided into two groups 13a, 13b. The diagram shows half the needles in each group but this proportion may be varied. Each of these groups further comprises sub-groups 14a, 14a and 14b, 14b of suture-forming needles separated by small sub-groups 15a, 15b. Loop holding inactivity may be obtained by directing the needles into a high inactive track or a low inactive track; they are commonly directed into, and subsequently out of, the inactive track by pickers but other needle-selecting mechanisms of well-understood construction (and therefore needing no illustration or description herein) may be employed.

Although a blank according to this invention may be knitted from either end it is convenient to assume that the blank shown in FIG. 1 is knitted from the bottom end upwards. It commences with the production of a circularlyknit rib or tubular welt 16 forming part of the body fabric 17, the production of which welt is well understood and requires no description or illustration herein. This body fabric is knitted by rotational knitting on all needles, employing both knitting and feeding positions 12a, 12b until the line A-A is reached. At this stage the machine goes into reciprocation and the needles 13a knit at position 12a and the needles 13b at position 12b. During this reciprocatory knitting needles are steadily directed into an inactive track so as to assume loop holding inactivity, working inwards from the outer end of each sub-group 14a, 14a, 14b and 14b, until the line BB is reached at which only the needles of sub-groups 15a, 15b are active. Thereafter the needles are progressively directed from the inactive track into knitting activity working outwards from the inner end of each sub-group 14a, 14a, 14b, 14b so that the number of needles in knitting activity is progressively increased in a widening operation, until 4 at the line C-C all the needles are again active. As each needle is brought from loop-holding inactivity into knitting activity it forms its first loop through the previouslyknitted p hitherto held on it.

Reciprocatory knitting may be effected simultaneously at the two positions 12a and 12b, or sequentially. If it is required, any conventional needle-control mechanism may be provided for ensuring that the needles of one group, having knitted at one position, do not knit at the next. For example, suitable needle-dividing cams (such as are well understood in the art) may be provided. Needle-selecting or patterning mechanisms of wide variety and scope are also well understood in the art and may be employed to move the required needles to and from loop holding inactivity. Pickers are commonly employed for producing pouches, and US. specification No. 2,290,147, Booton, discloses two-feeder circular knitting machines in which, by means of pickers, two pouches are knitted by reciprocation on opposed groups of needles, one group knitting at one feeding position and the other at another feeding position. FIGS. 14 and 15 also illustrate the use of pickers.

In FIG. 14 the needle cylinder is shown during a swing in the reverse knitting direction (arrow X) and needles of group 13a are knitting and feeding position 12a whilst needles of group 13b are knitting at position 12b. The needle controlling cams are shown for one feeding position only, the arrangement being quite conventional and known for knitting heel and the toe pouches of socks and stockings.

Needles of group 13a are shown being lowered from loop clearing height by their slider butts 13aB contacting and descending the feed cam PD of position 12a from which cam they are directed onto the reverse stitch cam RS. They are then raised to clearing height by cam RC.

When the slider butts of the needles of group 13a have passed through the feeding position 12a in the direction of arrow X, the needle cylinder ceases its swing in this direction and commences a swing in the normal knitting direction. The butts 13aB will now contact the feed cam FD to be led onto the forward stitch cam FS and then to be raised by the forward clearing cam PC.

In the above described manner, knitting by reciprocation takes place at feeding station 12a and terminal needles such as TN are progressively raised to loop-holding inactivity by the raising pickers RP. The raising pickers inactivate the needles by progressively raising their slider butts to a height illustrated by butt IB, at which such butts pass to and fro idly above the feed cam FD. When sufficient needles of group 13a have been inactivated they are then progressively lowered again to knitting activity by the lowering picker LP. The sequence just described is well known for knitting a single pouch.

It is possible, however to knit simultaneously a similar pouch on the needles of group 13b at a second knitting and feeding position located approximately in the position indicated at 12b in the drawing. It will be appreciated that the behaviour of the needles of group 13b, in making this second pouch, may simply be a duplication of the behaviour of the needles of group 13a just described. It is merely necessary, however, to control the sliders of both groups of needles so that one group knits (in both directions of swing) only at one feeding position, and the other group knits only at the other feeding positionzfor example by appropriately diverting each group past that position at which it is not required to knit.

In FIG. 15 also the needle cylinder is shown during a swing in the reverse knitting direction (arrow X) and needles of group 13a are knitting at position 12a whilst needles of group 13b are knitting at position 12b (the cams of which are represented by dotted lines at the remote half of the cylinder). Terminal needles of each group 13a and 13b are shown as having been raised to inactive level by the raising pickers.

The means for controlling the needes during reciprocation so that those of group 13a knit at position 12a and do not knit at position 12b, while the needles of group 13b knit at position 12b and do not knit at position 12a, will now be described with reference to the drawing.

Needles of group 13a are operated by sliders having two butts, the upper butts UB being short and the lower butts LB being long. Needles of group 13b are operated by sliders having one long butt B in the upper position.

Needles of group 13a are lowered by feed selector cam 12aS at position 12a acting on the lower butts LB of their sliders so that their upper butts UB are led onto the reverse stitch cam 12aR causing needles of group 13a to knit at position 12a. These needles are then raised to clearing height by a cam such as 12aC, and at this height their butts UB are level with the feed selector cam 12bS associated with feeding station 12b. However, for reciprocatory knitting, cam 12bS is withdrawn partially (by well known means) from the cylinder sufficiently to allow the short butts UB to pass by at clearing height so that their needles 13a do not knit at position 12b.

Needles of group 13b are lowered by the partially withdrawn feed selector cam 12bS acting on the slider long butts B which are led onto the reverse stitch cam 12bR causing needles of group 13b to knit at position 12b. These needles are then raised to clearing height by a cam such as 12bC and at this height their butts B will pass above the stitch cams at position 12a so that the needles 13b do not knit at position 12a.

When knitting during a swing of the needle cylinder in the direction opposite to arrow X, the needles of both groups are selected respectively by carns 12:18 and 12bS as just described, but in this direction the forward stitch cams 12aF and 12bF and the clearing cams 12aC and 12bC are used.

Raising pickers RPa are provided at position 12a and raising pickers RPb at position 12b. Pickers RPa act on butts LB of the terminal needles of group 13a to raise them to the high inactive track as indicated at Ta. Pickers RPb are positioned sufficiently away from the needle cylinder to miss short butts UB and act only on the long butts B of needles of group 13b to raise them to the high inactive track as indicated at Tb.

The lowering picker LPb is positioned suitably for lowering previously inactivated needles of group 13b by means of their long slider butts B so that they w ll knit at position 12b. This lowering picker LPb is positioned away from the cylinder sufficiently to miss the short butts UB.

A second lowering picker LPa is positioned suitably for lowering previously inactivated needles of group 13 by means of their lower butts LB so that they W111 knit at position 12a. Needles of group 13b are not atfected by this lowering picker LPa.

It will thus be seen that by the employment of well known mechanisms there is produced at the front and back of the garment blank narrowed portions 18 followed by and integral with widened portlons 1 9. These portions are connected by sutures 20 best shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, but represented in FIG. 1 by cha n-dotted lines. Each suture consists of loops of successive wales and courses of the knitted fabric at one side of it, meshed with loops of successive wales and courses of the knitted farbic at the other side of it. As hereinafter appears, in the resultant garment these sutures are disposed in the arm pits at which the sleeves diverge from the body. It will be appreciated that these suture lines extend diagonally of the wales and of the courses of the fabric at each side thereof. In effect there is produced at the front and at the rear of the blank a pouch 28a, 28b (FIG. 3) resembling a heel or toe pouch in a stocking or the like.

All the needles having been re-introduced into knitting activity at the line C-C, rotational knitting is resumed on all the needles and in both the systems 12a, 12b, to

6 knit tubular sleeve fabric 21 which if required may terminate in a ribbed culf band 22.

This completes the knitting of this particular construction of blank. It will be understood that both in the body fabric 17 and the sleeve fabric 21 the wales extend lengthwise and the courses extend widthwise thereof: As indeed is also true of all the constructions described herein.

Various modifications may be introduced. The sutures 20 may be of any known form. For example at the completion of the narrowing (i.e. at the region of line B, B) the inactive loop-holding needles 14a, 14a, 14b, 14b may be re-introduced en masse into knitting activity and a few circular courses of knitting produced and thereafter these needles are moved en masse into loop-holding inactivity prior to the commencment of widening. This results in the production of two parallel sutures in each arm pit. Instead of knitting these two pouches simultaneously by employing two systems 12a, 12b they may be knitted one after another employing one only of these systems and by shogging the needle cylinder through after one pouch has been knitted. This last mentioned modification may be adopted if the fabric 17, 21 is knitted at a single system. FIG. 14 shows such a system. The shogging of a needle cylinder to knit on different groups of needles, by reciprocation, while narrowing and widening is known in intarsia machines (see for example British specification No. 757,068). Futhermore, the shogging of the needle cylinder to knit sutured pouches by reciprocation on opposed groups of needles is well known is seamless hose machines (see for example British specification Nos. 312,930 and 328,830).

In order to complete the formation of the garment the sleeve fabric 21 is cut longitudinally along a medial line indicated at 23 in FIG. 4 so as to form two sleeve parts 21a, 21b having cut edges at 23. These sleeve parts are then turned down to the attitude as shown in FIG. 4 to assume a raglan form: a suitable neck opening 24 is formed by cutting and the cut edges of each sleeve part are seamed together along the tops of the sleeves and shoulders as indicated at 25 in FIG. 4 and any suitable form of collar, not shown, inserted by linking.

FIG. 4, like FIG. 2, depicts the garment in front elevation. Thus, the medial line 23 of FIG. 4 actually is a pair of opposed cut lines disposed in the front and rear of sleeve fabric 21. Preferably, cuts 23 follow wales extending from the top of the ribbed cuff band 22 to a point approximately intermediate the two sutures 20 of the same pouch 28a or 28b. When the sleeve fabric 21 is cut along these wales, the two pouches 28a, 28b are split, with the result that, when the sleeve parts are turned down, as shown in FIG. 4, each armpit is formed from two halfpouches, each from one of the two pouches 28a, 28b. Thus, the two sutures 20 disposed in each armpit originally were in different pouches 28a, 28b before the sleeve fabric 21 was cut. The termination points of the cut lines 23 may extend slightly above or below the pair of sutures 20 in pouches 28a, 28b, as desired.

The medial line or cuts 23 could be several wales wide, particularly if the sleeves of the garment are to be shaped, but such widened cuts 23 nevertheless would be intermediate the pair of sutures 20 of each pouch, and would terminate in the proximity thereof.

If desired a guiding line or lines for each cut 23 may be produced, while the sleeve fabric 21 is being knitted, by any appropriate walewise-extending stitch formation.

When cutting the marked sleeve fabric 21 the seamer may advantageously first cut and trim the fabric inwardly along a substantially straight medial line such as 23 from the outer cuif portion of the fabric to the neck area of the garment and thence immediately outward along another line close to and parallel with the first to the outer extremity of the cuff portion. In the cutting operation the sleeves may be shaped so as to give them, for example, the tapered form illustrated in FIG. 4.

For cutting and seaming there may be employed a machine known as a jet opening or jet pocket machine. The fabric tube is turned inside out and is fed to the machine in flattened form. The machine makes a single cut as at 23 through both fabric layers of the flattened tube and simultaneously makes two sleeve seams one at each side of the cut, each sleeve seam connecting the cut or raw edges of the two fabric layers of one of the sleeve parts. The garment is subsequently turned right-side-out so that the raw edges are at the inside of the sleeves.

In a modification, instead of the sleeve fabric 21 being knitted by rotary knitting it may be knitted by reciprocatory knitting so as to form two areas of sleeve fabric having selvedge edges. These selvedge edges may be fashioned by the use of pickers or other needle selecting mechanisms. Matters may be so arranged that these selvedged sleeve areas are located one at the front and one at the back of the blank and subsequently require to be cut as at 23. In this case the sleeves will have cut edges seamed together along the top as at 25 and selvedged edges seamed together along the bottom of the sleeves. Alternatively the two selvedged portions of sleeve fabric may correspond to the sides of the blank so that their selvedge edges are presented centrally in the blank as viewed in FIG. 1 in which case the selvedged edges will be seamed together as at 25, FIG 4. The needles employed for knitting these sleeve portions should be so selected that the sleeves, when seamed, are correctly disposed.

In an alternative mode of forming the sutures illustrated at 26 in FIGS. 6-9, rotational knitting of the body fabric 17 continues until, at a line DD, all the pouchforcing needles 14a, 14a, 14b, 1411 are moved en masse to loop-holding inactivity. Thereafter reciprocatory knitting commences and these needles are progressively reintroduced into knitting activity until at the line EE they are all active and the production of the sleeve fabric 21 continues in the manner already described.

It will be appreciated that these sutures 26 extend course-wise of the body fabric 17 and diagonally of the wales and courses of the sleeve fabric 21. The pouches are shown at 28c, 28d in FIG. 8. Each armpit suture extends diagonally of the wales and courses of the sleeve fabric 21 at one side of it and consists of loops of successive wales and courses of said fabric 21 meshed with loops of successive wales of the body fabric 17 at the other side of it.

An inversion of this arrangement is illustrated in FIGS. 10-13. The body fabric 17 is knitted on all needles as far as the line A-A, whereupon reciprocatory knitting commences and the pouch-forming needles are moved progressively to loop-holding inactivity until the line BB is reached, whereupon they are re-introduced en masse into knitting activity and knitting of the sleeve fabrics 21 is continued, said movements of the needles between knitting activity and loop-holding inactivity being effected by well-understood conventional means. It will be appreciated that the sutures 27 thus produced extend diagonally of the wales and courses of the body fabric 17, but coursewise of the sleeve fabric 23. The pouches are shown at 28e, 28], in FIG. 12.

It has already been mentioned that separate blanks, one for the front and one for the rear of the garment, said blanks having selvedge edges, may be produced on a knitting machine having a straight row of needles. Although the blanks illustrated in the accompanying drawings have been described as being produced on a circular knitting machine these drawings also illustrate such a selvedged blank. For example FIG. 1 may be considered as illustrating a front or rear blank, having selvedge edges, produced on a straight bar knitting machine or on a flat knitting machine both of which types of machines are capable of producing the fashioning sutures, by sequential steps of causing hitherto-active needles temporarily to cease knitting but to retain their last-knitted loops and of then restoring them to knitting acivity, at least one (and preferably each) of which steps is effected progressively needle by needle. The sleeve-forming fabric 21 may be cut as at 23, FIG. 4. Alternatively, the sleeve fabric 21 may be knitted as two selvedge parts and in FIG. 4 the parts 21a, 21b may be considered as representing such parts. These front and rear blanks are seamed together up the sides of the body and along the top and bottom of the arms.

It will be appreciated that in a garment made according to FIG. 10, each arm pit suture extends diagonally of the wales and courses of the body fabric 17 at one side of it and consists of loops of successive wales and courses of said fabric 17 at one side of it meshed with loops of successive wales of the sleeve fabric 23 at the other side of it.

In all sleeved garments, blanks therefore and methods of knitting these blanks, according to this invention, the arrangement is preferably such that the arm-pit sutures extends substantially to the neck-line: thus as will be seen from FIG. 4 the sutures 20 extend inwards to the cut edge 24 of the neck opening.

What I claim is:

1. A knit garment comprising a tubular trunk encircling portion, integral knitted limb encircling portions and sutures uniting said trunk portion to each of said limb portions,

(a) said trunk encircling portion having a knitted end area from which selected wales extend from a terminal course through said trunk portion, said sutures and said limb portions;

(b) each said suture extending diagonally of the wales and courses of at least one of said portions which it unites, the terminal loops of said wales and courses of said one portion being meshed with the terminal loops of at least the wales of the other portion which the suture unites; and

(c) each of said limb portions including a series of partial courses having terminal stitches which are secured together to form sleeves.

2. The garment according to claim 1, wherein each said suture extends diagonally of the wales and courses of each of said portions that it unites.

3. The garment according to claim 1, wherein said tubular trunk encircling portion is seamless.

4. The garment according to claim 1, wherein said tubular trunk encircling portion and said limb encircling portions are comprised of front and rear blanks seamed together along the sides of said trunk portion and said limb encircling portions.

5. A method of making a garment comprising the steps of:

(a) knitting a first tubular portion;

(b) knitting a pair of opposed pouches integrally with selected areas of said first tubular portion;

(c) continuing the knitting to form a second tubular portion extending from the pouches and the first tubular portion;

((1) longitudinally slitting one of said tubular portions to a selected area within each pouch and thereby dividing said tubular portion into two parts, each consisting of partial courses; and

(e) seaming the cut edges of each part to one another and thereby producing two tubular limb encircling portions each integral with the other of said turbular portions.

*6. A knitted body garment, comprising a knitted body and integral knitted sleeves diverging from the body, which body and each of which sleeves has lengthwise extending wales and widthwise extending courses, arm pits at which the sleeves diverge from the body, and sutures in the arm pits uniting the sleeve fabric to the body fabric, each suture extending diagonally of the wales and courses of at least the knitted fabric at one side of it and consists of loops of successive wales and courses of the fabric at said one side meshed with loops of successive wales of the knitted fabric the other side thereof.

7. A garment according to claim 1, wherein the body fabric is a seamless knitted tube.

8. A knitted blank for a body garment of the character described, comprising seamless tubular knitted bodyforming fabric, and sleeve-forming fabric integral with the body fabric and extending from an end thereof, said body-forming fabric and sleeve-forming fabric having lengthwise extending wales and widthwise extending courses, and sutures between the body-forming fabric and the sleeve-forming fabric at opposed locations of the blank, which sutures define pouches at two other opposed locations of the blank, and each of which sutures extends diagonally of the wales and courses of the knitted fabric at least at one side of it and consists of loops of successive wales and courses of the knitted fabric at said one side of it meshed with loops of successive wales of the knitted fabric at the other side of it.

9. A method of making on a knitting machine equipped with a complement of needles, and being of the type adapted to knit tubular fabric on said needles, a knitted blank for a body garment having a knitted body and integral knitted sleeves diverging from the body, and armpits whereat the sleeves diverge from but are united to the body, which method comprises (a) knitting sleeve-forming fabric and body-forming fabric, the one in direct continuation of and integral with the other, and each having lengthwise extending wales and widthwise extending courses, and

(b) forming in the region of the armpits opposed pouches each having sutures connecting the sleeveforming fabric to the body forming fabric of the garment, each said pouch being formed by the steps of (1) causing needles at each of two separate locations in the complement of needles temporarily to stop knitting but to retain their last-knitted loops, and

(2) then restoring said temporarily-inactive needles to activity,

(3) at least one of which steps is affected progressively whereby said sutures in the pouches extend diagonally of the wales and courses of the fabric at one side of said sutures.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein each said step is effected progressively whereby each suture extends diagonally of the wales and courses of the fabric at each side of it.

11. A method according to claim 9, wherein the sleeveforming fabric is knitted by reciprocating knitting as two sleeve-forming parts each united to the body-forming fabric.

12. A knitted blank for a body garment of the character described, comprising (a) tubular knitted body-forming fabric,

(b) knitted sleeve-forming fabric integral with the body-forming fabric and extending from an end thereof, said body-forming fabric and sleeve-forming fabric having lengthwise extending wales and withwise extending courses, and

(c) knitted pouches disposed between the body-forming fabric and the sleeve-forming fabric and integral with each, said pouches to provide fabric for armpits in the garment.

13. An independent-needle circular knitting machine, having a plurality of circumferentially-spaced feeding and knitting stations, a circular series of needles comprising two circumferential groups disposed over different but substantially consecutive arcs of the needle circle, needlemanipulating means for acting on the needles to cause both groups to pass through and knit at each of two successive stations at successive knitting cycles of the machine in the production of a unitary length of fabric consisting of courses knitted at both said stations on both groups, and pouch-producing mechanism, operable during other knitting cycles of the machine, for causing the two groups simultaneously to knit two sutured pouches onto said length of fabric, one group knitting a pouch at one station and the other group simultaneously knitting another pouch at the other station.

14. A machine according to claim 13, organized to knit by rotation and by reciprocation, wherein the two groups are differentiated by having control elements at contrasting locations, and wherein the needle-manipulating means includes means for acting on said control elements to cause both groups to knit at both stations during rotation and for causing, during reciprocation, one group to knit at one station and the other group to knit at the other station.

15. A method of knitting on an independent-needle circular knitting machine having a plurality of circumferentially-spaced feeding and knitting stations and a circular series of needles, which comprises:

(a) manipulating the needles in successive knitting cycles of the machine to pass through and knit at each of two successive stations of said plurality and thereby to produce a unitary length of fabric consisting of spaced courses knitted at one of said two stations alternating with intervening courses knitted at the other of said two stations,

(b) knitting two simultaneously-knitted sutured pouches onto said unitary length in other successive knitting cycles of the machine by (c) manipulating the needles, in each of said other cycles, in two circumferential groups disposed over different but substantially consecutive arcs of the needle circle,

((1) selectively controlling the needles of one group to pass through and knit one pouch at one only of said two stations but to omit knitting at the other of said two stations, and

(e) selectively controlling the needles of the other group to pass through and knit the other pouch at the other said station but to omit knitting at said one sation.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein the machine is operated by rotation to knit tubular fabric during the first-said knitting cycles, and the two groups in which the needles are manipulated for knitting the pouches are diametrically opposed in the needle circle and the pouches are knitted onto the tubular fabric at diametrically-opposed regions thereof.

17. A method according to claim 16 wherein, after the pouches have been knitted, the machine is operated in further cycles to knit further fabric onto the pouches by employing the needles of both groups.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 294,637 3/ 1884 Kreisel 2-90 545,479 9/1895 Holmes 66-189 2,072,050 2/1937 Sharps 290 2,126,186 8/ 1938 Friedland 2-90 3,057,178 10/1962 Konlin 66176 3,153,243 10/1964 Sakurai 2224 3,195,147 7/1965 Yamamura 2243 3,287,937 11/1966 Landau 66--189 FOREIGN PATENTS 348,499 10/ 1960 Switzerland 66-189 RONALD FELDBAUM, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 66176 

